In order to reduce administrative procedures and reduce the time for tax exemption, the Ministry of Finance will amend and supplement the regulations on import tax exemption for goods in the revised version of Decree 134/2016 / ND-CP for goods not for commercial purposes; imported goods for scientific research and technological development; imported goods in direct service of national security and defense; imported and exported goods in service of social security and overcoming consequences of natural calamities, disasters, epidemics and other special cases.

For goods not for commercial purposes

According to analysis of the drafting committee, Clause 1 of Article 27 stipulates that goods for non-commercial purpose are exempted from import tax in the following cases: “Sample goods, sample photos, and sample films with Customs value not exceeding VND 50,000 or goods can not be traded or used, only for making a sample”. However, this regulation does not clearly specify the limit of 50,000 VND for each shipment or each item.

Therefore, in order to ensure transparency, Clause 1 of Article 27 was amended and supplemented as follows: “1. Samples, photos of sample goods, sample films, models for Customs samples with the customs value not exceeding VND 50,000 are exempted from tax each time they are imported or processed”.

Goods for scientific research and technological development

As for the tax exemption for imported goods for scientific research and technological development, Point d, Clause 2, Article 40 of Decree 134 stipulates that the Ministry of Science and Technology includes “specialized scientific papers, books and journals for direct use in scientific research, technological development, science and technology enterprises incubation and technology renewal”. However, Clause 3, Article 19 does not provide tax exemption for the list or the criteria for determining scientific journals, which is not consistent with the provisions of Point d, Clause 2 of Article 40.

In addition, the provisions at Point c and d, Clause 4, Article 19 increase the administrative procedures for taxpayers as tax exemption documents prescribed at Points b and c, Clause 4 of Article 19 are only appropriate in the case where the Ministry of Science and Technology has not promulgated the list or criteria for determining imported goods directly used for scientific research, technological development and scientific and technological enterprise incubation. At present, Article 31 of the Decree stipulates procedures for tax exemption when carrying out Customs procedures in general, including the tax exemption in Article 19 of the Decree. On the other hand, the Ministry of Science and Technology is developing a Circular guiding the exemption of import tax for imported goods in service of scientific research and technological development as stipulated in Clause 21 of Article 16 of the Law on Import-Export Tax, and Article 19 of Decree No. 134 / 2016 / ND-CP.

At Point d, Clause 2, Article 40 of Decree 134, the Ministry of Science and Technology shall have to promulgate the list or criteria for determining “exclusive scientific documents, books and scientific journals for direct use in scientific research, technology development, incubation of science and technology enterprises and technological renewal”.However, Clause 3 of Article 19 does not provide tax exemption for the list or criteria for them. Therefore, it is necessary to add the phrase “scientific journal” to Clause 3 of Article 19 to fit well with the provisions in Point d, Clause 2 of Article 40.

Moreover, Clause 4 of Article 19 provides additional documents in addition to the tax exemption documents prescribed in Article 31. According to the Customs office’s assessment, the dossiers specified at Points c and d, Clause 4 of Article 19 increase the administrative procedures for taxpayers and are only appropriate if the Ministry of Science and Technology has not issued a list or criteria for determining imported goods directly for scientific research and technology development, incubation of science and technology enterprises and technological innovation.

At present, Article 31 of the Decree stipulates procedures for tax exemption when carrying out Customs procedures in general, including the tax exemption in Article 19 of the Decree. On the other hand, the Ministry of Science and Technology is developing a Circular guiding the exemption of import tax for scientific research and development as stipulated in Clause 21, Article 16 of the Law on Import-Export Tax, Article 19 of Decree No. 134. Therefore, it is necessary to remove all the documents specified in Clause 4 of Article 19 for uniform implementation in accordance with Article 31 of Decree No. 134/2016 / ND-CP.

Imported goods for national security

Point b, Clause 4, Article 20 regulates the tax exemption procedures after Customs procedures are carried out. As reflected by the Customs authorities, this provision is inconsistent with the provisions of tax law 107/2016 / QH13 because the goods exempted from duty must complete the tax exemption documents at the time before or during clearance of goods. Pursuant to Point b, Clause 4 of Article 20, where tax arrears arise, Customs offices shall have to monitor tax debts arising up to the date of issue of tax exemption noticed by the General Department of Vietnam Customs. Many tax exemption documents submitted late in accordance with Clause 4 of Article 20 from several months to half a year lead to huge tax arrears on the tax debt monitoring system.

Therefore, according to the drafting committee, all the provisions of Point b, Clause 4 of Article 20 need to be met in order to reach agreement with other exemptions in Customs clearance to facilitate enterprises in implementation.